MATCH BLOG (Tues): Bans on boilies, bloodworm and groundbait?

WELCOME TO the Tuesday blog. Tuesdays mean Steve Collett, focussing mainly on match fishing but also delving into his styles of pleasure fishing and specialist angling.

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CRAZY BANS

I am beginning to notice a worrying trend of new fisheries opening and introducing some of the most stupid bans and sets of rules ever, and I was pretty keen to find out if any of these farmers, oops sorry I mean fishery owners, know what they are actually banning or have they read a set of rules from the 70s and decided that’s the law? So I’m going to run through a few of these bans and see if you make any sense of them.

Boilies banned?

No Boilies. Now why would you want to deprive your fast growing potatoes, oops I mean F1 carp and other fish, of a fine nutritional meal, I asked fishery A, he replied: “Boilies get thrown in loads boy, some of them bring em in buckets and throw the bloody lot in boy!”

Now unless his client base consists of lottery winners, no one is going to throw “buckets” of boilies in at 10 quid a kilo, and if there is anyone out there who wants to, then feel free to go and feed my fishery! So why are boilies banned, it baffles me.

Bloodworm not welcome

No Bloodworm or Joker. Again this must go back years, when everyone worked down t’ mines and bloodworm and joker was £750 per gram, again in my opinion tosh. So I asked fishery owner B, he replied: ‘Eerr I don’t know… its bred in sewers, I don’t want that stuff in moi lakes boy, gerroff!’ now a pack of B & J can be obtained for the price of a kilo of worm and can be the difference between having a great days sport, or sitting there with nothing to do.

Groundbait gets a NO

No Groundbait. This is another strange rule, and it puts us behind on so many levels it’s unbelievable. I don’t know where this ban has come from, but the potato farmers, oops I mean fishery owners, that enforce this rule again, go back to this mythical man who carries at least a dustbin full of groundbait, and will ruin his fishery overnight. In my opinion, a load of rubbish, it wont rot on the bottom of your field, I mean fishery – it will be eaten, because you have rammed it full of starving F1s that can only feed on soup style baits because their mouths resemble a pellet band.

No Hemp. Ok, what does hemp do to fish, and apart from a select few, not many people can fish it properly. And at £2.99 a can, if you have a guy on your fishery who wants to use it, hug him, knight him – he is keeping the tackle shops afloat. Does anyone know why hemp should be banned ? Answers on a £20 note please.

Fishery-only pellets. Now this one could get me banned, but there is only really two manufacturers of coarse fishery pellet, and if you have to buy them from the fishery, you have probably been an accessory to the crime that is depriving your local tackle shop. That’s all I will say on that matter.

Now after you have read my rant, you may be wondering why? Well, all I can see these rules doing is ruining a day’s fishing. Gone are the days when fishery owners are interested in their fish welfare – that’s why they imposed the bans. If they were worried about fish welfare, why stuff 10,000 lb of F1 rats into a muddy one-acre hole?

I practice what I preach: the only rule on my fishery is no fixed Method feeders or leads, throw as many boilies in as you want please! My aim is to ensure you have a good days fishing, not to ensure my power status as a tabard-wearing Hitler on a quad !

Stephen’s match award of the week goes to Lee Kerry

I was very fortunate to be invited to the 30th anniversary match organised by Sandra Scotthorne of Halkon Hunt at Hayfield fisheries, and what a wonderful event it was – a real pool of match fishing’s finest, and as a silver fish match with bloodworm and joker allowed it promised to be a superb match. It was the unstoppable Lee Kerry who took the honours with a fine net of 36lb 15oz and showed his class once again. Lee take a bow – this week’s Anglers Mail performance of the week.

STEVE COLLETT RETURNS WITH A NEW BLOG NEXT TUESDAY.

READ A NEW BLOG HERE EVERY DAY!

Frank Barlow is BACK! Check out some great stories from the soon to be published ‘Best of Barlow’ in this week’s Angler’s Mail!BOOST your baits! Quick and easy way to get the best out of your boilies in cold conditions!MONSTER! MONSTER! Jeremy Wade joins the Mail’s Gary Newman for a predator session.WHAT a haul! One of the biggest barbel hits ever!